The regular courses of study and instruction in this branch of the department extend through four years. ^* and generally they are intended to prepare students for professional work, either as engineers, chemists or architects. It is not assumed, however, that all who avail themselves of these advantages for professional study will actually become professional men. On the contrary, it is fair to expect that less than one half of the professional graduates will ultimately adopt engineering in any one of its branches as their path of labor. But it is expected that those who complete any of the following courses of study will exhibit that mental discipline which enables one to undertake the solution of the problems of active life; and that they will possess such knowledge of the physical world as will fit them to turn to good account the wealth with which they are surrounded.

The best discipline is often secured through the agency of professional studies. Every such study has a practical bearing, and, in a student's mind, is invested with a strong sense of responsibility. The special merit of an "office" education—i, e., the train-ins to be gained in a lawyer's, a doctor's or an engineer's office, in the counting-room, or in a page 35 factory—is due to the fact that there the student deals with the problems of real and not ideal life. The obvious importance of every step in a process stamps it ineffaceably upon the mind. To a certain extent this is true of professional studies in a Polytechnic School.

On the other hand, students are free from the cramping narrowness which is the characteristic demerit of a business training. At school, the professional student is led to the study of the finest examples of professional theory and practice, both in the present and past ages, with the greatest possible range of subjects. The growth of mind under such cultivation is very great compared with that to be gained from the utmost familarity with the petty details of a single ordinary office.

It is for these reasons that students looking forward to a non-professional business life are often advised to follow some congenial course of professional study.

The studies are the same for all the courses during the Freshman and Sophomore years, but during the Junior and Senior years they diverge, page 36 more or less, though certain branches still remain common.

The distribution of studies and exercises is substantially as follows: